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Estimating the Financial Costs of Victimization, United States, 2017-2018

Metadata Updated: November 28, 2023

Despite reductions in U.S. crime rates in recent decades, crime victimization continues to be a pressing problem with enormous societal costs. This project, conducted by the Justice Research and Statistics Association (JRSA) in partnership with the Urban Institute (Urban) and the National Center for Victims of Crime (NCVC), is an assessment of the field of cost of victimization research. The product is a menu of recommendations for future research studies and practitioner tools to advance the field. One objective of the project was to keep the focus squarely on the victims, and consider what information is most needed by those who serve them. Relatedly, another objective was to recognize that even if the proximate victim is a business, the government, or non-profit organization, individuals still suffer. Given the victim-centered focus, the project team conducted several primary data collections designed to obtain input from practitioners and victims about their experiences and needs. Focus groups were conducted with three practitioner groups: Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) compensation and assistance administrators, State Administering Agency (SAA) and state Statistical Analysis Center (SAC) directors, and civil attorneys who pursue tort claims for damages for crime victims. As well, the project team conducted a nationwide survey of victim service providers and a smaller survey of victimization survivors. The project team also re-framed the taxonomy of victimization costs pioneered and revised by Cohen over the years (Cohen, 2005, e.g.) from the perspective of various practitioner users - based on who covers different costs - and adds factors that may increase or decrease costs they may be estimating. The project team also conducted a literature review that consists of two major sections: one focused on how costs of victimization are estimated and the other on estimation methods and data sources concerning the incidence, prevalence, and concentration of victimization. The data collection activities and literature reviews, combined with extensive input from an advisory board of experts throughout the project, inform the menu of recommendations proposed in Volume III. These focus on topical areas where more information is needed; methodological recommendations to improve estimates; and practitioner resources and tools to help disseminate research developments, assist in calculating local estimates, and better equip practitioners to communicate and use victimization cost estimates effectively in the field.

Access & Use Information

Restricted: This dataset can only be accessed or used under certain conditions. License: us-pd

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Dates

Metadata Created Date August 18, 2021
Metadata Updated Date November 28, 2023

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOJ JSON

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date August 18, 2021
Metadata Updated Date November 28, 2023
Publisher National Institute of Justice
Maintainer
Identifier 2963
Data First Published 2021-01-28T11:46:30
Language eng
Data Last Modified 2021-01-28T11:50:23
Rights These data are restricted due to the increased risk of violation of confidentiality of respondent and subject data.
Public Access Level restricted public
Bureau Code 011:21
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://www.justice.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 1c8aa6f3-7365-483a-90db-0c233d22ec7c
Harvest Source Id 3290e90a-116f-42fc-86ac-e65521ef3b68
Harvest Source Title DOJ JSON
License http://www.usa.gov/publicdomain/label/1.0/
Program Code 011:060
Publisher Hierarchy Office of Justice Programs > National Institute of Justice
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash fffafb61beab64367facd367e2a9126caee71c4a15f22123d2993f6e62d1f3c6
Source Schema Version 1.1

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